


Diffusion

by lannisterlion



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Difficulty Concentrating, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 04:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10779558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannisterlion/pseuds/lannisterlion
Summary: Based off the prompt: "Luck? Nope. Skills." "If it's skill then do it again."orJyn is training to be a field agent but is having a hard time concentrating.





	Diffusion

“Concentrate, Jyn, it’s important.” Cassian stood on the other side of her desk, arms crossed over his chest as he watched her work. It was incredibly distracting. Usually, Jyn relished any opportunities that Cassian and she got to be alone. But this wasn’t Cassian, her – _whatever_. This was _Captain Andor_ , and Captain Andor was in rare form.

“I am concentrating,” Jyn replied, utterly unconvincing even to her. She’d been sitting at that damn desk for a couple of hours, listening to him ramble about how to dismantle explosive devices. Something about always cutting the white wire first, but only cut the red one if there’s no yellow one - though she'd hardly feel confident trying to dismantle something _real_. She stared up at Cassian’s face for a moment, finally understanding where he got that furrowed knot between his eyes; carrying around that much knowledge of wires would give anyone all those hard lines.

“ _Jyn_ ,” Cassian hissed, motioning back to the fake IED in front of her. It was designed for practice and let out a shrill siren if a mistake was made instead of blowing up. After Scarif, Jyn had insisted she wanted to be a field agent with Cassian, but the training had been hit or miss. It wasn’t that she _couldn’t_ do it, she was simply too used to giving into her emotions – anger, impatience, boredom, to name a few.

“Fine, fine.” Jyn turned her eyes down to the IED once more, its wires bulging out from the side that she’d already unscrewed. She saw a white wire. That part had been easy enough to remember and she snipped it with confidence before glancing back up to Cassian for approval.

His face was impassive. Neither impressed nor unimpressed.

Jyn huffed slightly, then stared back down at the tangle of wires. It wasn’t that she thought the training was unimportant – they encountered way too many mines and bombs in the field, both from the Empire and from separatist grounds that just wanted to see the galaxy burn. It was an important skill that could very well save her life, save _his_ life, or the lives of innocent bystanders.

And yet. 

Jyn blamed Cassian. It was hard to take an authority figure seriously when you knew what his face looked like when he came.

“If this was real, it would’ve exploded by now. We’d both be dead.” Cassian hoped to inspire a sense of urgency in her, but his words only served to make her full lips purse deeper into a petulant little pout. He placed his hands on the desk, leaning over until they were eye level. 

Jyn understood dismantling any kind of explosive was time sensitive. It was just so damn hard to think when he was next to her, giving her orders like a captain and not like her – _whatever_. But that was the point, wasn’t it? To prove to Cassian, to General Draven, to Mon Mothma and all the higher ups that had to sign off on her placement that she could work beside him and not get distracted. They had tried to be subtle about their _whatever_ , but a few misplaced bite marks and the unsubtle way Cassian tended to stare at her had given them away.

“Okay, okay. I can do this,” Jyn assured him. Positive affirmations. The truth was, she had no idea what she was doing, but this was practice and she had to do _something_. Her hands started to work quickly, snipping wires methodically but randomly. Her body braced for the shrill alarm, but it never came. Instead, she got a pleasant ding and the light on the side turned green. “See? I told you!”

Jyn expected Cassian to beam with pride. His _whatever_ had dismantled her first practice bomb! Instead, his mouth was slack, a look of pure shock on his face as he glanced between the cut wires and the pair of pliers she’d set haphazardly back on the table.

“That was – the most incredible display of sheer. dumb. luck,” Cassian finally forced out, disbelief coloring every word. He finally looked her in the eyes, small little frown working its way back on his face.

“Luck? Nope. Skills,” Jyn said with far more confidence than she felt. In truth, her heart was pounding. She’d be happy to finish this part of training, and fast – but she knew she was utterly unprepared if she had to do this in the field.

Cassian wasn’t buying it for a second. His frown deepened, his face turning back into all hard lines. “If it’s skill, then do it again.” His eyebrow arched in disapproval and it was Jyn’s turn to scowl as he turned to go grab another practice unit.

Jyn groaned as he set the unit in front of her. She wasn’t naïve enough to think she’d be able to pull off that stunt again. She could either fess up or endure the ear-splitting shriek of that damn siren when she inevitably cut the wrong wire. Cassian’s fingers began to drum against the desk as he leaned across it once more, waiting. “If I – if I said I might want to go over it one more time – “

Cassian sighed, disappointment written all over his features. “Dammit, Jyn – I meant it, this is _important_!”

Cassian wasn’t disappointed in Jyn often. Sure, he’d occasionally get angry at her or she would at him and they’d have their little spat and get over it. But disappointment? It made her stomach churn uncomfortably. She sat up straighter in her chair, feeling herself close off.

“I know it’s important, don’t talk to me like I’m a child – “ she started, her voice defensive and on edge.

“Then don’t act like one!” Cassian interrupted, cutting her off. That only made her _more_ defensive and she crossed her arms over her chest, her brows knitting together in a tight grimace.

“It’s hard to learn this stuff when I have a teacher who thinks I should just _know_ it,” Jyn added hotly, glaring up at Cassian. She expected him to scoff or maybe roll his eyes, but of course he didn’t. He’d slipped on his spy mask and his face was as blank as stone.

“It’s simple stuff, Jyn. It’s just following directions.” Cassian made it sound so easy. He pointed to the datapad beside her, where he’d instructed her to take notes. And Jyn had taken some notes, but he’d started to talk too fast and she’d gotten distracted, remembering what they’d gotten up the previous night – and, well, sometime after the third instruction she’d just started tapping random letters on the datapad.

“I don’t learn that way.” Jyn was a hands-on learner. Everything she knew, she picked up either by trial-and-error or by having no other choice than to figure it out. Of course, she knew that something as delicate as disarming an explosive device couldn’t be learned that way, but Cassian’s method of droning on and on certainly wasn’t helping.

“How do you want me to teach you then?” Cassian asked, his voice tired. Clearly, he didn’t care to have an argument about the better method of teaching and for that, Jyn was grateful. She relaxed a little bit in her chair, hopeful that maybe Cassian planned to listen to her.

“Show me,” Jyn explained, scooting to the edge of her chair. Cassian’s eyebrow arched once more, as if he was considering. Slowly, he walked around the table and stood behind Jyn’s chair, leaning over from behind. Jyn wasn’t sure if this was what she meant, but she could feel warmth radiating from his body and his breath tickling the nape of her neck and she wasn't about to ask him to move.

“Unscrew it,” Cassian said simply, waiting for Jyn. She picked up the small screwdriver and set to work, getting the hatch off of the side of the IED. “White wire first.”

That had been easy enough to remember. Jyn picked up the pliers and snipped the white wire, waiting for his next instruction. “If there’s a blue wire, then snip green. If there’s no blue, then snip yellow.” Jyn set her pliers to the yellow wire next, freezing slightly when she felt his fingertips brush the back of her neck.

“What are you waiting for? Cut the wire,” Cassian said nonchalantly. As if he didn’t know what he was doing. Jyn bit her lip and cut the yellow wire. “And, after a yellow wire, cut red.” He punctuated that set of instructions with a kiss to the spot his fingertips had brushed.

“My, my Captain Andor – do you train all your recruits this way?” Jyn purred, snipping the red wire. Cassian’s lips roamed to the side of her neck, just under her ear.

“Trying a bit of positive reinforcement. We get through this, you do one more – you finish that one without my help, I’ll give you a reward. Now pay attention.” Cassian knew he had her full attention once he watched her squirm a bit in the chair. She knew exactly what sort of reward he’d give her. “After red, look for green.”

Jyn obediently snipped green next. There were only two wires left. Already, she was running through his lesson once again, preparing to remember for when she’d have to dismantle a practice bomb on her own. Her skin prickled in goosebumps when his fingers carefully pulled open the collar of her shirt, exposing her shoulder to him.

“And after green, snip orange,” Cassian hummed, his lips pressing against her shoulder. That left only the black wire, which she quickly snipped as well. Done. No alarm. “Black wire is always last.”

Jyn shrugged him off of her, her face slightly flushed but filled with determination. “Just get me that other device,” she snipped, impatient for her reward.

Cassian chuckled, pushing himself back up to go grab another device. “Keep in mind, this one could be different. What comes after a blue wire?”

“Green,” Jyn said breathlessly, her leg bouncing under the table. That time, Cassian did offer her a proud look, making her stomach do those funny little flips.

And that time, when Jyn opened up the practice device, she didn’t have to rely on luck to finish.

**Author's Note:**

> Taking requests at diegocassians on tumblr.


End file.
